Impact on Maintainability and Refactoring for Higher-Level Design Features

Explore the impact of higher-level design features on maintainability and refactoring in C++ programming in this comprehensive ACCU Conference talk by Titus Winters. Delve into strategies for refactoring functions, classes, and class templates, and examine how recent additions like Concepts affect long-term refactoring. Learn about the trade-offs between abstraction levels and their cognitive and maintenance costs. Discover techniques for handling complex refactoring operations, including renaming types, dealing with forward declarations, and managing namespace changes. Gain insights into multistep refactoring approaches, their challenges, and effective strategies for implementation. Understand the importance of legacy precision and cost-effectiveness in refactoring decisions. This talk is essential for C++ developers interested in improving code maintainability and mastering advanced refactoring techniques.

Introduction
Historical context
Structured programming
Types vs functions
What is refactoring
How do you draw an owl
Basic refactorings
Limits
Scale and Visibility
Multistep refactoring
Multistep refactoring atoms
Multistep refactoring operations
Questions
Rename a type
Forward declarations
ADL for everyone
Changing namespaces
Multistep refactoring approaches
Problems with multistep refactoring
Multistep refactoring strategy
Legacy precision
We dont do this for every change
It should be cheap
Functions
Preconditions
Format String Checker
Summary